My Review of The Sandman: "Season Of Mists"

 

Written by Allan Heinberg

Directed by Jamie Childs 

Dream: "Walk any path in Destiny's garden and you will be forced to choose."

Has it really nearly been three years since the first season of this show? Yes, it has and a lot has happened since then. We had a shortlived spin off with Dead Boy Detectives and there's no ignoring what's been going on with Neil Gaiman behind the scenes.

Anyways to the opening episode of this final season, we're introduced to Destiny (Adrian Lester). He doesn't waste time in summoning Dream (Tom Sturridge), Death (Kirby Howell-Baptiste), Desire (Mason Alexander Park), Despair (Donna Preston) and Delirium (Esme Creed-Miles). Basically, family reunion time.

This lot haven't been together in a realm for a long time and it took very little for Desire to respectively stir the pot. Mostly needling Dream but also managing to annoy other siblings as well. Desire really did push the button, specifically the one called Nada (Umilisa Gahiga). Yes, remember her?

Last time Dream saw her in Hell, he had other things on his mind. Now he was determined to save her but not before filling Death in on his complicated romance with Nada. The latter chose to be tormented in Hell out of guilt. Dream also swore Death into keeping quiet about it. Destiny already knew that Dream was heading to Hell and filled the rest of the siblings in on it too.

Dream seemed to be eager to get his affairs in order. He refused the assistance of Matthew (Patton Oswalt) and put Lucienne (Vivienne Acheampong) in charge of the Dreaming during his absence. Funnily enough, he also admitted to being afraid of Hell.

Of course, Dream had good reason to. Last time he humiliated Lucifer (Gwendoline Christie) and the latter hadn't forgotten that slight. In fact, Lucifer seemed to be delighted with Dream's mission to Hell and had a plan of their own for Dream. It offered a solid cliffhanger to this opening episode.

- Other characters to appear in this episode included Merv Pumpkinhead, Cain, Abel, Goldie,  the Fate Sisters, Hippolyta and baby Daniel and Hob Gadling.

- The missing Endless sibling was Destruction (Barry Sloane) who chose to abandon his siblings ages ago. Delirium and Despair miss him the most.

- Nada was the Queen of the First People and found herself being pressured into finding a husband. Dream proposed to her.

- Desire seemed to enjoy their impact being felt during their time at an art gallery. The butterfly trick was rather cruel.

- The DC Studios logo popped up during the closing credits of this episode. This season has been split into three release patterns from Netflix.

- Chronology: A while since the events of the previous season finale.

Season Of Mists was a good starter for this final season. I enjoyed the siblings get together, the expansion of Dream's history with Nada and his farewell tour of sorts. A very good start.

Rating: 8 out of 10